SoylentNews

What Shall We Be?

posted by LaminatorX on Wednesday March 12 2014, @10:55AM   
from the ontology dept.

prospectacle writes:

"An important choice remains for this site. What kind of organisation will we be, practically, legally and financially?

A for-profit, shareholder corporation seems out of the question, by general consensus (correct me if I'm wrong), but other questions remain. The basic choice is this:

Will we be like a charity, a co-op, or a recreational club?

1. (Like a) Charity:
   Being like a charity means operating for the public benefit. What we produce is news and englightened commentary for the benefit of the world. All our finances and operations would be geared towards this aim. All excess revenue is reinvested into the site.
2. Co-op:
   A co-op is for the mutual financial benefit of individual (possibly paid) members. Three main sub-options for this exist that might be appropriate for this site:
   2a) A retailer's co-op. Members use a common organisation in order to make individual profits. For example if members used this site to display their stunning intelligence, and then put their resume or website links on their profile page so people could hire them. Maybe there are services built into the site to find someone to hire who fits your requirements.
   2b) A worker's co-operative: Employees share any excess revenue. Some revenue would go to expenses, some would be reinvested, whatever remains is shared among employees.
   2c) A buyer's co-op. We exist to get discounts, or to buy together what we can't afford separately. Maybe we're buying well-written news and analysis from professional authors. Or maybe we're bulk-buying electronics, etc, so the price-per individual can be lower.
3. A Recreational Club:
   This takes membership fees to provide access to equipment, organize competitions, etc. Maybe paid members would get to use extra services, like an email account, or storage space, or their own discussion thread area, or software project hosting, or chat-rooms, etc. Non-members could still be permitted, with fewer privileges, and would have to pay-per-use for the extra services (or pay to become a member).

This is a gross simplification, but gives some idea of the options involved. Feel free to offer alternatives. So what should we be, what is our purpose, really? And what kind of a structure is required to make sure we serve that purpose, and that money doesn't end up in the wrong pockets?

Bonus question: which jurisdiction should we set ourselves up in to fulfil our mission most effectively?"

• Make your goals and policies explicit first (Score: 1) by elias on Thursday March 13 2014, @01:38PM

  by elias (666) on Thursday March 13 2014, @01:38PM (#15847)

  For any of the legal entity types that you list the most important part is not the legal entity itself but the explict goals that you have set yourself. For any legal structure those goals will most likely be added to a charter, or management agreement, or any such document of constitution.

  You can be a for profit that caps the income of its owners aiming to benefit the world, and you can be charity with no caps on the salary for the employees (usually the director) aiming to do damage.

  So the questions you need to ask first are along the lines of:

  In our mission:

  • Do we just provide news, or do we want to support freedom of expression (for instance by stating in a clause that no third party, for no amount of money will be able to sponsor the removal or change of a post, unless there are legal requirements).
  • Do we provide login just to post and participate, or do we guarantee (with disclaimer for technical mishaps) privacy of the individuals etc. et.

  In our Business Model

  • How much income do we need (just keep the server running? Remunerate X,Y,Z)
  • Where is the income coming from?
  • Who is owner, who is employee, who is unpaid contributor, who is (unpaid) member?

  In our charter

  • Can we be sold to a third party. Are there any rules in place in case a sale takes place (who decides, are there any guarantees for the privacy of users, etc).
  • Remuneration are according to industry standards (can be very expensive ..), or X amount to be reviewed anually. Perhaps for different functions.
  • Remuneration is capped to 110% of industry standards in <region> - should you feel it is import to keep the income of players in line.
  • If we use adds as a means of income, do we exlude pornography, animal cruelty, etc or does anything go?

  The choice of organization type depends completely on what you come up with on questions like the above. In fact, it will folllow from the answer that you gave. Not sitting down to ask them - and perhaps get some advice from someone who knows how to ask, will get you in trouble again like the ones you experienced earlier on. And yes you need to write things down and make them very explicit.

  I do notice that I wrote : In our which means that apperently I do feel part of this movement. And so do many others which is part of the huge opportunity that you guys have. So I can tell you what I as one in "people" would like to see:

  • Sane advertisements (I may unblock adds on soylentnews if they do not annoy me too much)
  • A clear privacy policy
  • A clear editorial policy (no mixing of paid ads and posts, i.e. no paid posts; deletion of overly hateful, racist, slanderous comments etc. etc.).

  Those three are key for me to ever consider paying a contribution, because I want to be sure that my contribution is to a site that will never run into trouble because, for instance, supremacist trolls took over or it has become a site with a clear political agenda (whichever agenda).

  Ultimately, for me, it is about the submissions and the comments. So the main challenge you have it to stabilize as an organization and make sure that the community feels comfortable enough to put the effort required for the content to grow. Remember, "soylentnews is people" :)